This is an important band in the history of Canadian music. With Franco-Ontarian roots, the band
combined an appreciation for French Canadian folk music with (then-) contemporary art-rock forms of
composition. It took a little while longer for the disco and punk scenes transform the record
industry in Canada, thankfully, allowing bands like Garolou and Rush (and the record companies there
were signed to) to put out high-quality music for a couple of years longer in the late 1970s than in
the US or UK where from 1976 onwards bands were being pressured to change their style. This band
released their debut album under the name Lougarou, and only subsequently changed it to Garolou on
their second album. While not quite as developed as their second album (Garolou), this is high
quality music, and an excellent debut album. While some of the tracks remain pretty folky (including
the opening track, Dis-Moi Charles, which is not to say they are in any way inferior), other tracks
became staples of French-Canadian progressive rock (La Belle Francoise, A la Claire Fontaine, etc).
The music is highly memorable after a couple of plays (a number of the songs stick in your head),
and although firmly rooted in the 1970s has aged gracefully and so does not sound (too) dated these
days. The soloists are not virtuosos by any means, but the playing is highly evocative and musical
(more like Gilmour's guitar solos). This album remains on our family playlist (it still gets
requests when we drive up to camping in the summer!), which (anecdotally I realize) speaks to its
longevity. Although not essential, this is lasting quality music. I give it 8.1 out of 10 on my
10-point scale, which puts it at 4 PA stars.
Walkscore |4/5 |
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